ENGINEERS AT REST - PART 2

Sir Vincent Raven’s final resting place rediscovered after 82 years

Within days of publishing the fifirst CMEs feature in SR450, we received responses that have enabled us to fifill in many of the blanks where details about the lives and deaths of this country’s most eminent engineers were scarce. Perhaps the biggest riddle we have solved is the fifinal resting place of Sir Vincent Raven. The story behind the interment of the North Eastern Railway CME alone justififies our investigation into a subject area that hitherto has remained largely unexplored. Peter Grafton, author of a biography on Raven, tells us he spent many hours with the designer’s remaining relatives, but was still unable to determine the location of his grave. Peter told SteamRailway that Raven: “left specifific instructions that he was to be cremated and that there were to be no flflowers. They - the family - had no idea which crematorium was used or what became of the ashes.” It seemed Sir Vincent Raven was lost to history until we received further information from John Clarke, author of The Brookwood Necropolis Railway, confifirming that Raven has a memorial stone in Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey. The discovery of the engineer’s grave raises two issues. The fifirst is that the CME’s gravestone is buried in undergrowth, and that it is now time to make it a memorial more becoming of his status. The second, and a question, is why would Raven, born in Norfolk, who was associated with the NorthEast of England and died in Felixstowe, be interred in Surrey? Perhaps another SR reader knows the answer. Mark Neale was able to help us locate the remains of LMS CME Charles Fairburn; revealing that he is interred in Stepney, East London. We are still trying to pinpoint the exact location of the grave. An interesting anecdote that has emerged from our investigations is that Henry George Ivatt remained energetic following his retirement, reportedly working unpaid as a petrol pump attendant in Melbourne, Derbyshire. As ever, this list is not defifinitive and any additions or amendments are most welcomed. Two notable names whose burial details we have been unable to trace are Lawson Billinton of the LB&SCR and Robert Harben Whitelegg of the LTSR and G&SWR. Other names are reaching us, and we propose to produce another update in a future issue. Finally, our apologies for the printer’s glitch in SR450, which resulted in the second half of the names failing to match up with the corresponding pins on the map.

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